NSA chief says Trump has not directed him to counter Russian meddling

Win McNamee/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — One of the nation’s top intelligence officials told Congress Tuesday that despite what he called Russia’s “sustained aggression,” President Donald Trump has not directed him to take any action to counter Russian election meddling.

Senators on both sides expressed irritation with the U.S. government’s failure to prevent Russian interference in the 2016 election and with the lack of a clear strategy to counter yet more meddling in this year’s midterm elections.

“How long are we going to step back and look broadly at this attack,” asked Connecticut Democrat Richard Blumenthal, telling Rogers he was outraged by Russia’s “disrupting, sowing discord, continuing to attack our democracy in ways that most Americans find abhorrent.”

“I’m an operational commander – not a policy maker,” Rogers responded. “I am not going to tell the president what he should or should not do.”

Rogers, who was testifying in his capacity as commander of U.S. Cyber Command, said that absent any new directions from the president, his ability to respond is limited by the scope of his existing authority. But he said nothing the government has done so far has deterred the Russian onslaught.

“They haven’t paid a price that is sufficient to get them to change their behavior,” said Rogers. “It certainly hasn’t changed their behavior in the way that we need.”

Virginia Democrat Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton’s running mate in 2016, told Rogers “we’ve been humiliated as a country, we’ve lost the first real cyber war our nation has been in. The U.S. government failed to protect the U.S. democracy.”

Asked at Tuesday’s White House briefing why Rogers has not been given the authority to counter Russian meddling, press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters, “No one is denying him the authority. We’re looking at a number of different ways” to prevent Russian interference.